Transform Your Homes with the Latest Lighting Trends

Lights are in all lands and cultures, a symbol of hope, joy and the power of life. From the discovery of Fire to the present day, lights have played a very powerful role in our lives. Lights transform cities, places, buildings and homes and serve many purposes in enriching our lives.

The Importance of Lighting in our Homes
The role that lighting plays in transforming the ambience and décor of our homes, and in turn our lives cannot be over emphasized. It defines the character and enhances the allurement of even the humblest of rooms and of every nook and corner. It can lift our moods and dispel the gloom and highlight the décor of our homes. If used cleverly, it can turn any part into a snug habitat with its warmth and glow.

What can we use?
Some of the trends the world over, is of using three broadly different modes of lighting to create an impact.

1. Creating Ambience: One of the most commonly used lighting, it create a soft blanket of light covering mostly the functional areas of your rooms. It serves to make the room’s lighting as natural and uniform as possible. It impacts our moods and enables the pupils to dilate slightly relaxing the mind and giving a feeling of happiness.

The use of Recessed lights is one way of creating this effect. It uses a series of lights hidden in the faux ceiling all over the spread of the room and being recessed has the element of joyful surprise. You can use them in bedrooms, a study, kitchen or drawing room.

Chandeliers and Pendants are another source of lighting, especially with higher ceilings which help engulf the room with a gradual fall of light. In smaller homes, chandeliers are giving way to pendants, a variety of which are flooding the markets. Pendants look very snazzy over sculptures, tubs in bathrooms, and other fixed articles of decoration.

Wall Scones and Wall lights are versatile and can be used almost anywhere. They are better used in passages, patios and porches. They can be used to highlight the architectural nuances of your home. They should be sparingly used to avoid clustering them together as the light they may emit may appear harsh.


2. Task Lighting: These are smaller lights placed to target their concentrated intensity on specific areas of work. These are mostly used at work-stations, in cubicles and on desks. They can be placed for reading and writing, sewing, cooking, and any other such applications. Their application is best in contrasting lighting conditions where the rooms have soft ambient lighting and the specific areas of work are task lit. They help keep the user alert and focused and are useful in functional areas.
The use of Desk, Swing-Arm and Floor Lamps lend a specific utility to the purpose of lighting a room. Desk lamps can be used on children’s tables, at bed sides, or coffee tables. Swing arm lamps are adjustable and can be moved to suit different needs. Floor lamps are usually placed along the walls and corridors at the floor level and act as guide lamps at night to enable movement to and fro the toilet and kitchen at late night.

Cabinet and Vanity lighting are another form of task lighting. Having lights to illuminate cabinets, drawers and shelves help the user locate things with easy. These can be automated to switch on when pulled open. Vanity lamps lend grace and utility to bathrooms mirrors and dressing tables.

Track Lighting is an efficient and unobtrusive way of illuminating strategic articles. Track lights are usually used in long and narrow corridors which often suffer if they are only lit from ceiling mounted light fittings. They can appear dark in some areas of the room. To get a more uniform level of light throughout the corridor, use track lighting to mount a number of evenly distributed light sources.


3. Accent Lighting: Accent lighting usually focuses light on a particular area or object with the aim of highlighting it. It adds style and sometimes drama to your house by highlighting artwork, bookcase displays, a grand piano, and when used outdoors its architectural façade or garden art innovations. Museums, historical buildings and art shows use it a lot.

Accent lighting can be achieved using Spot Lighting and Tripod Lighting. Spot lights can be placed at the ground and roof level and is used to focus special attention to certain art forms. Tripod lights are used for the same purpose but are placed at a height to the object to be highlighted. These lights when they are used in contrasting shades tend to enhance the features of the object they are pointed at.

Landscape lighting are used to show the outside features of your home and garden, a swimming pool, statues, a barbecue station or a pool-side bar.

The use of these lights covers a modestly sized house, maybe a flat or a bungalow and maybe a villa. Used with LED lights and controlled by dimmers where needed, they can enhance the quality of life as a considerable time of our evenings and nights are being actively spent, as our life styles change in a rapidly changing world.